Three Ideas...

[Dusk]

Imagine you were put in charge of either MindArk or one of the Planet Partners, just for one day. You were given a brief to suggest three changes, and they would be implemented. For the sake of argument, resources are unlimited for the day so go for it. The only area that is off-limits is bug fixes; but nothing else is taboo.

What would you do, and why?

Me? Well I love space in EU, but it hasn't grown really since its implementation. Therefore I would do the following:

1) Remove the log-off feature on the large space vessels.

Every time you board a vessel of this type, your stackables are linked to the ship although you can still use them, trade them, TT them, etc. If you log off, your items are still linked to the ship, and if your ship is destroyed by pirates they get your loot (without needing to shoot your writhing, gasping torso). If, when you next log on the vessel hasn't been destroyed by pirates while you were gone, and you subsequently leave the ship, your stackables are no longer tied to it.

2) Expand Space.

Keep the planets in their relative positions (and keep travel times between them the same), but expand space well beyond them. Make the current space merely the centre of the known universe. If you want me to quantify how big it should be, I'd say fifty times the current size minimum. The purpose is the ability to explore the universe, to find new items, to allow different people to have control of parts of space, to have more to space than just fighting pirates, carrying passengers and the like. Maybe have remote space rocks that can be mined by large vessels and small vessels alike.

3) Show only the local mark-up on items.

In real life, if you buy something in one country it is often the case that the price would have been different in another country. So why does the ingame MU data display universe-wide MU data? My proposal would be that MU data for an item (for example, lysterium ingots) would display the MU for your location only (i.e, the planet you're currently on). If you are on Calypso, you see the Lysterium Ingot MU data for Calypso only. If you want the same data for Arkadia you would need to travel there. I remember the 1980s game Elite and draw my inspiration for this idea from that. It would potentially generate exports between planets, as well as encouraging people to buy low in one place and sell high elsewhere.

So those are my ideas. With unlimited resources for one day only, what would you suggest?

 

[Tendermeat]

Make auction work across all planets. It sure would spark some life in the dead places.
Having each planet have their own economy is a nice idea, but it obviously doesn't work.

 

[ACEwoK]

1. Separate the planetary Auctions so that Calypso's weight in the Weighted Auction Average, doesn't skew the data. This will allow the "interplanetary trade" to blossom properly. Make the data viewable from any planet so you can plan your journey.
2. Expand Space, increase the speed of vehicles to account for the expansion and provide a "Safe Route" between planets so that people have a CHOICE to participate in PvP (lootable or otherwise). Make it take twice as long or have hazards you have to manually navigate or whatever. The point here is give people a choice.
3. Return the old systems properly and fix the BLOODY BUGS!

 

[Falagor]

You will not like this but since i have got the power... :

1) Remove space completly and - to compensate hangar owners in some way - leave the interplanetary travel as it was for some time just before introduction of space (tp fee that is split between hangar owners). OR make space non lootable.

2) (this one actually needs more power than MA power for one day - actually it would need creating game from scratch again) make damage/pec (known as eco) matter. With current system there is too much compensation for using maxed SIB "uneco" unlimited items - as soon more and more players understand and use this, it leads to degradation of market value of (L) items.

3) (as before) remove all unlimited items. This way economy is more stimulated not only by dmg/pec connected with TT value but also with markup (espetially if point 2) is also implemented). Of course some items should be avaible at TT but they should also be (L) (like curently kiwio is).

----- since i had only 3 but i would like to change more i will write

4) remove redundant items. Reconstruct whole connections between mined<->crafted<->hunted resources, and make every item usefull instead of having gazilion of items that mostly land in TT becasue they are useless.

5) remove looted amo (connected with point 4) - so every item you loot can actually be sold for even very small but still markup. Also this would make easier to keep track of logs when using laser/blp (its main reason why i will never use those anymore).

6) (actually i think i want this to be in top 3 instead of point 1)) give exact decay info in item description! (so people will not have to make stupid fruit tests to know this...)

There: those are just of top of my head. And i do realise i am talking about creating totally different game structure. I guess that as soon there will be RCE that will have all of this i will switch to that game .

Falagor

 

[Dusk]

I want to expand a bit on my point 2 in the OP. I didn't do it there because long-assed OPs can kill a thread stone dead.

So what would go into this expanded space?

Mini-asteroids that could be mined. They would have to be found (promotes exploration) and there is a good chance of getting the dreaded NRF. Once a pilot finds a mini-asteroid it is always going to be there, and will give a certain type of resource when mining is successful.

Space mobs, as in the current universe, but with space area (like land area) rights. A space owner can initially claim a space area by completing tasks within an area. This task might be to simply find the area, or even to fly within close proximity of all eight boundary markers (think a 3D cube). Alternatively, maybe the first to a thousand kills in the area or the first person to mine a certain resource within the area.

Abandoned Alien Craft. These could be explored, they may have common resources in their cargo holds. They may also have Alien Technology that is fragmented and needs to be assembled. Such craft and technology would purposely be rare. To assemble such tech, the parts would have to have matching pictograms on them, and it would require four or five parts per device. Such a device could give a speed boost to a vessel, be a special weapon or evasion device, or have a function on the planets (heal tool, super-armour, etc).

 

[SoReal]

Imagine you were put in charge of either MindArk or one of the Planet Partners, just for one day. You were given a brief to suggest three changes, and they would be implemented. For the sake of argument, resources are unlimited for the day so go for it. The only area that is off-limits is bug fixes; but nothing else is taboo.

What would you do, and why?

Me? Well I love space in EU, but it hasn't grown really since its implementation. Therefore I would do the following:

1) Remove the log-off feature on the large space vessels.

Every time you board a vessel of this type, your stackables are linked to the ship although you can still use them, trade them, TT them, etc. If you log off, your items are still linked to the ship, and if your ship is destroyed by pirates they get your loot (without needing to shoot your writhing, gasping torso). If, when you next log on the vessel hasn't been destroyed by pirates while you were gone, and you subsequently leave the ship, your stackables are no longer tied to it.

Some nice ideas here .
Especially point 1 . that needs sorting.

 

[Gerald the grey]

Idea 1: Kill off the planets that are almost completely empty, thus, focusing on 2 planets and fixing everything on them. More dense population on planets, more trade, more everything... more events, planetary wars etc... Land grabs...

Idea 2: I would really like ESI prices to be lowered, since i wanna chip in so badly but don`t wanna bankrupt my RL account Some people looting ESIs will disagree because of their great MU, but MA can add some good items in loot pool for the mobs that drop esi now, that will balance out your returns if ESI MU falls to 150-180%. Cheaper ESI meaning more people will be using bigger guns, more ammo being burned, more ped cycled, more dynamic universe. I know this ain`t gonna happen, but it would really help alot. If somebody wants to hunt bigger mob, cycle more ped, chip in to higher level and go with it. But with huge MU on esi, its a pain to calculate how big MU i pay for esi, and the small fraction of that price are actual skills that i wanna buy. Its like selling a piece of paper in a golden chest. I wanna buy that paper, i don`t want overpriced golden chest

Idea 3: Make the game even harder for non depositors...... just kidding , don`t shoot me next time in pvp

Idea 3 for real: Make game tutorial-official tutorial from people that made the game. THere is a huge knowledge and extensive test results being available to us by players that use their empiric tests and big experience but some things should get a bit of info from the devs themselfs.

Idea 4: And give us 1 ped each time we get connection lost and CTD. Haha

 

[Tepes]

If you want me to quantify how big it should be, I'd say fifty times the current size minimum.

Yes.. YES!!! THIS!

I mean, the only thing keeping this game alive is the lootable PVP space.

Just disregard the fact than the game took a nose dive with the increase pirating activity, culminating with that summoning abuse which went unpunished.

Ask MA how their deposits went after that incident. Who wants to play a game where a bunch of exploiters are taking your money and withdraw them immediately?

Check the withdrawals thread, this game is toasted. RCE my arse. Really, do you think MA should put MORE time into space and encouraging pirating?

 

[Dusk]

2) Expand Space.

Keep the planets in their relative positions (and keep travel times between them the same), but expand space well beyond them. Make the current space merely the centre of the known universe. If you want me to quantify how big it should be, I'd say fifty times the current size minimum. The purpose is the ability to explore the universe, to find new items, to allow different people to have control of parts of space, to have more to space than just fighting pirates, carrying passengers and the like. Maybe have remote space rocks that can be mined by large vessels and small vessels alike.

For the benefit of Tepes.

If the pirates have something else to do, like explore, maybe they'll be less inclined to pirate people travelling between planets.

 

[Tepes]

For the benefit of Tepes.

If the pirates have something else to do, like explore, maybe they'll be less inclined to pirate people travelling between planets.

Thugs in RL are robbing for profit, they are not some kind of intellectual giants bored with the small world around.

Consequently, the pirates in game have a very different mindset. They are here to profit big. Some of them were involved in scamming items from other players, using exploits to gain advantage, are you aware of that, yes?

They could care less about the great "expanse" as long as MA will provide them with bottleneck points like planet exits. Yes, if there would be 100 points for exit for any planet, at sufficient distance in space for each other, it might do something.

But it does not matter... as I said the smell of decay is spreading.

 

[Dusk]

Thugs in RL are robbing for profit, they are not some kind of intellectual giants bored with the small world around.

Consequently, the pirates in game have a very different mindset. They are here to profit big. Some of them were involved in scamming items from other players, using exploits to gain advantage, are you aware of that, yes?

They could care less about the great "expanse" as long as MA will provide them with bottleneck points like planet exits. Yes, if there would be 100 points for exit for any planet, at sufficient distance in space for each other, it might do something.

But it does not matter... as I said the smell of decay is spreading.

I know of at least one pirate who is doing it as a means to train himself in combat for when space opens up big-style. You can be sure there are others with the same mindset. And yes, I'm fully aware of the use of exploits by some of them - I witnessed such acts myself.

Anyway, the intended purpose of the thread was to get people thinking about ALL aspects of the EU. Not to defend my ideas.

 

[Tepes]

Anyway, the intended purpose of the thread was to get people thinking about ALL aspects of the EU. Not to defend my ideas.

Fair enough, point taken.

IF I was in charge of Mindark, I'll have this three ideas:

1) Fire the guys responsible for the buggy mess and hire a team of 10 experienced (at least 5 years coding) programmers.

2) Fix the bugged features which annoy many players, some of them big spenders - bugged hit boxes, bugged textures, bugged colors, bugged missions and so on.

3) Ban exploiters and seize all their assets in game, even a MS if needed. Give a clear message that whoever cheat will lose all. Use chat logs and if is proven than someone did not kept the terms of the deal, ban them permanently and seize their and their alts/friends assets.

....

10) after this I will look at adding new things to space, because as a MA CEO I can see my player base returned/stayed/kept their money in game:

- materials could be transported only with MS and MS only.
- as a corollary, Sleipnirs and Quads cannot be attacked by pirates, everyone can explore freely the universe for oil and slow ship decay costs. Oil is available on all planets as a minable resource.
- MS cannot be attacked directly, but only at warp points via mines and then regular guns. Non-MS ships have to be inside a special team in order to be able to attack / be attacked - something to make the previous point possible.
- MS can be crafted for an insane amounts of materials with a TT BP - so whoever wants to have one, they can, for a hefty TT price + MU. No more hoarders.

Also I would spend money on the point 10 ONLY if, from statistics, results that there is enough player base to support the investment.

11) Fire 5 of those 10 nerds.

 

[shoti]

You will not like this but since i have got the power... :


3) (as before) remove all unlimited items. This way economy is more stimulated not only by dmg/pec connected with TT value but also with markup (espetially if point 2) is also implemented). Of course some items should be avaible at TT but they should also be (L) (like curently kiwio is).

-:

I have idea how to perform that. MA need all unL items ,from opalo to mod merc ,be aviable to buy in Trade Terminal for TT. After few month totaly without notification (when most of that items will be TT junk anyway) MA need to herald that they will be buying back that items for TT+....hmmm...lets say 50 peds. It will be in all ppl interest to sel it back for such high price.

Disadvantage of this is lot of pissed ubers quiting and making bad PR, but they do that now anyway so MA can base again on fresh blood

 

[mastermesh]

1. Bring back interplanetary TPs since some of us actually have real world lives and don't want to be bothered with travel times between planets. Removing them was taking technology that existed previously in game and throwing it in the trash... We are supposed to be advancing in tech in game by learning from bots, etc, not going back thousands of years backwards. If we keep 'advancing' in this manner someday soon scientists will learn that the best form of vehicles is bicycles and no one will be allowed to have anything more advanced than that. Keep the 'fees' on the TPs as before, but split them 50% to hanger owners ONLY IF one of the destinations is Calypso and the other 50% to a lootpool that goes in to space, sort of similar to the way that ammo lost in pvp zones goes in to lootpool there in that zone, at least according to some un-proven theories. If Calypso isn't one of the destinations, 100% of the tp fee would go to that loot in space... giving pirates a reason to hunt up there instead of harassing others possibly to the point of violating eula and tos. It's also give legit space explorers reasons to explore space and keep them from having to tie up their time in playing taxi driver, wasting their time... Let them spend their time killing mobs in space bringing more money to Mindark and not bringing MA low income per hour they are logged in as they do with being a taxi.

2. Bring back interplanetary auctions - since tech levels are increasing (automated drones are doing the deliveries as a part of the storyline in EU just like they will be for Amazon irl before long), as they were before space existed in game... The fee for delivery will go 10% to each planet that is involved in the transaction (one for who is selling, and one for who is buying - if they are on same planet, there is no delivery fee). The other 90% of that fee will go in to the space mobs just like the interplanetary tp fee.

3. Create a citizenship system for each planet. This would basically be a CLD type of system enabling voting rights and so on, but it'd also allow you to tp to each planet you are a citizen of once a week without having to pay the tp fee. If you are a citizen for multiple planets the fee would be free as long as the planets you are tping between are the planets you have citizenship on. Citizenship would NOT be limited to how many can have it as the CLDs are... basically you pay 1k to any given planet and you get the citizenship. If you pay more than the 1k you get the land plots, etc. The land plots would be tradeable, but the actual first 1k for the citizenship that you pay would not be tradeable... it'd be sort of like a non-tradeable tt item you paid 1k for that just gives you a free bus pass to the planet via tp system from other planets once a week, voting rights, and whatever other benefits citizens get (such as shares of revenue as with the clds, etc.). This would encourage folks to planet hop more, helping the economy, etc.

As for the CLDs, well they could be traded in for citizenship passes with max of one cld traded in per avatar... so those that own the clds could stick with the system as it is now for them, or they could trade in for their free bus pass/voting card and sell off the rest of them to other avatars so the uber wealthy don't hog the cld profits, and other avatars would have a reason to actually buy the clds, etc. and MA would keep the income since the clds would essentially over time be traded for tt=0 citizenship cards... of course since there are unlimited amounts of citizenship passes available, anyone could just buy one from the tt for 1k at any given time. The profit sharing thing on Calypso would stay as is for the most part with the original clds, but on other planets, it'd open up potential for other types of profit sharing systems, etc.